Rome audience for freed Lebanon priest

by Cristina Odone
RELEASED American hostage Fr Lawrence Jenco met the Pope in a special audiehce earlier this week, and arrived in London yesterday to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Servite priest was released last weekend after 18 months in captivity as one of four hostages held by Moslem extremists in Lebanon.
Accompanying Fr Jenco on both visits was Dr Runcie's special envoy, Terry Waite, who is widely held to have played a key role in the release of the priest. Mr Waite, who has been engaged in previous efforts to free hostages in Lebanon, would not comment on his plans for the release of the remaining prisoners.
According to one of the priest's brothers, John Jenco, Fr Jenco was chained, blindfolded and often held in solitary confinement during his captivity. A US Air Force doctor who visited the priest upon his arrival in Wiesbaden, West Germany, said his condition was satisfactory but there were signs of heart disease.
Fr Jenco, who was seized by gunmen in West Beirut on January 8 last year, carried a video taped message from one of his fellow hostages, David Jacobsen. In his emotional plea, Mr Jacobsen called for US Government action to free the hostages, and criticised President Reagan for his failure to work out the terms for the release of the Americans held.
Islamic Jihad, the radical Shi'ite Moslem group responsible for the kidnapping, had issued its demands for releasing the hostages last year, when they asked that 17 fellow members be freed from a Kuwaiti jail where they are being held as terrorists.
But in the video taped message from Mr Jacobsen, the captors' demands were not mentioned,
Fr Jenco, who directed Catholic Relief Services' operations in Beirut, serving both Christians and Moslems, was freed because of worsening health, according to two Beirut newspapers who carried a statement from Jihad only hours before the priest's release.
In their statements, Jihad warned that Fr Jenco's release "will be the last gesture on our part" and that there would be "grave consequences unless our demands are met."
Despite the threat from the terrorists, and despite the anxiety expressed by the families of those Americans still held in Beirut, the Reagan Administration stands by its refusal to negotiate with the captors.
Following the broadcast on American television of Mr Jacobsen's video taped message over the weekend, a spokesman for the White House said at a Washington press conference that although Reagan vowed to "work very hard" for the release of the prisoners, "we're not going to give in."
Upon his arrival at the US Air Force in Wiesbaden, Fr Jenco told reporters that he would "pray God that those men will come here as I have." He added that he had "high hopes" for the release of his fellow prisoners.
*TWO OTHER religious were freed last week when Sudanese rebels released two American nuns on Thursday, after four days' captivity. The nuns, according to the Sudanese news agency, have been asked to leave the country, because they visited a banned military area.